Bush shelter saved dad and son lost in Tasmanian wilderness for days

ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA TO CARRY SURVIVAL GEAR IN YOUR VEHICLE IF YOU ARE GOING BUSH, BUT THERE IS NO POINT IN LEAVING THAT GEAR IN THE VEHICLE IF YOU ARE GOING TO LEAVE THE VEHICLE!

Learn primitive skills & equip yourself with suitable equipment before going bush.

Full story here: http://www.9news.com.au/national/2017/04/27/08/35/father-son-still-lost-in-tas-wilderness/?ocid=nann170428

If or When TSHTF. Part Six. Going Bush. Gardening & Construction Tools.

Gardening and Construction Tools.

When moving out bush with a view to long term living you need to have some idea in your head as to the type of area you are looking for. You will need permanent water if possible, a creek or a river. This may also supply reeds for shelter construction & other items. A cave would make a great shelter or even a rock shelter, but if these are not available at your water source then you will have to construct shelters.

These types of tools are generally bulky & heavy, but they can also double as weapons if you have people to carry them. Helves, handles & stails can be removed from the heads & the heads can be carried in a pack if this is easier than carrying the complete tool. Think carefully about the tools you will need. In a long term wilderness living situation you will need to produce gardens & construct shelters.

Here is a list of tools that I have collected for this purpose:

·    Felling axe

·    Small shovel

·    Small mattock/pick

·    Sickle or sword

·    Hoe

·    Auger

·    Gimlet

·    Pruning saw

This is what we call Cattail Pond. It is large & deep & is fed from a header stream. Cattails/Cumbungi provide food & materials for roofing, mat making, mulch for gardens & arrow shafts.

This is a small mattock/pick head made to be used with a short helve for one handed use. But you can make & fit a longer helve (handle).

Full sized 18th century style garden hoe.

Large auger for cutting holes & hammering in wooden pegs for securing beams together or just installing pegs.

An original 18th or 19th century pick.

Pruning saw. These are very efficient for cutting off tree limbs & for construction work. Easily carried if you construct a sheath, or just wrap & place in a pack.

18th century sickle for cutting reeds.

This is a small shovel head that I can easily carry in my pack & make & fit a handle when I reach my destination.

My hunting sword. A weapon & a useful tool for cutting reeds.

Left to right: My felling axe with a light head & a straight helve; two fascine knives or bill hooks; an adze; my half-axe which I occasionally carry tied to my pack, & my tomahawk which I carry in my belt at all times.

These are a small auger & gimlet that I made from two brace bits.

Above you can see how I hammered the ends with a ball peen hammer to secure the bits in the handles that I made.

Two original gimlets. In the 18th century these were used to make holes for nails so that the nails would not split the wood. Later they were still in use for making holes for wood screws. These can also be used to make holes for wooden pegs or for inserting wire for repairs or construction.

Seeds

You will need to take seeds with you so now is probably a good time to be collecting them. If they go out of date before use, replace them. You should have some idea of the area you will be travelling to, so purchase seeds for that climate. Following is a list of what we grow in the New England area:

·    Pumpkin/squash

·    Zucchini marrow

·    Silverbeet

·    Chard

·    Sunflowers

·    Corn

·    Potatoes

·    Tomatoes

·    Jerusalem Artichokes

You will never starve if you are growing Jerusalem Artichokes. These are a root crop which last through winter & continue to grow when warmer weather comes. They are related to the sunflower .

Jerusalem Artichoke tubers

This image showing my half-axe secured to my blanket roll by simply sliding the helve under the ties. I can carry the large auger in the same manner.

If or When TSHTF Part Five. My choice of the best gun for long term wilderness living. The Muzzle-Loader.

Any muzzle-loader will give you an edge in long term wilderness living except the percussion lock. The percussion lock, also known as a caplock, requires fulminate of mercury caps for its ignition. This method is NOT sustainable. Tinderlocks & Matchlocks are good but they require a burning fuse at all times making you visible in the dark & the gun not so pleasurable to use as other later locks. The wheellock is good but does require Pyrite for its ignition & this is not always easy to find.

The flintlock requires a siliceous or igneous rock for ignition & this type of rock can be found in the bush if you know what you are looking for. I find the easiest way is to carry a fire steel with you & simply test the rocks you come across to see if they are hard enough to create sparks by striking the steel.

Above: This is English flint, a siliceous rock which can occasionally be found in coastal areas of Australia where English ships dumped their flint rock ballast before taking on a new cargo.

Above: This is agate which can be very common in places in Australia. Agate was used a lot in place of flint for flint & steel fire lighting. Agate is also a siliceous rock.

Above: This is quartz, very common in places & although it tends to fracture easily it is still a good rock to use for gun or fire lighting.

Above: Green chert.

http://www.aradon.com.au/green_chert.html;

Jasper.

This is obsidian, an igneous rock or volcanic rock.

Advantages of A Flintlock Muzzle-loader.

1)    Ammo is less expensive than a modern equivalent caliber firearm.

2)    The smoothbore is very versatile, being able to digest round ball, bird shot, & buckshot, or any combination of two of these (can also use minies).

3)    The fusil is lighter to carry than a modern equivalent sized gun.

4)    You can vary the load if needs be.

5)    The smoothbore will digest other projectiles besides lead.

6)    Lead can be retrieved from downed game & remoulded with a simple mould & lead ladle. This means that you can carry less lead, & more of the lighter gunpowder.

7)    You can make your own gunpowder.

8)    You can use the lock to make fire without the need for gunpowder.

9)    You can use gunpowder for gunpowder tinder fire lighting if needs be.

10)  IF the lock should malfunction (these are very robust & it is not likely) you can easily repair it if you are carrying a few spare springs & a few simple tools.

11) If you do not have any spare parts & the lock malfunctions, you can easily convert it to a tinderlock or matchlock & continue using it.

12) You do not need a reloader, brass shells, caps, or primers. The latter have been known to break down in damp conditions or if they are stored for too long.

13)  Wadding for ball or shot is available from natural plant materials or homemade leather or rawhide.

14) Less chance of being affected by future ammunition control legislation.

15) Gunpowder is easily obtainable providing you have a muzzle-loader registered in your name regardless of caliber (only NSW is looking at this legislation at present).

16) A .32 caliber flintlock rifle is more powerful than a .22 rimfire, less expensive to feed, more accurate over a greater distance, able to take small & medium sized game, & other than not being able to use shot (unless it is smoothbore), it has all the attributes of the other flintlocks.

17) Damage from a .62 caliber-.75 caliber pistol or long arm is in the extreme. Wounded prey is unlikely to escape.

18)  By using buck & ball you are unlikely to miss your target. This load is capable of taking out more than one target.

19)  There is less kick-back to a muzzle-loading gun.

20)  Antique Flintlock muzzle-loading guns do not require a license, registration, or a permit to purchase in NSW Australia.

My .62 caliber/20 gauge smoothbore flintlock fusil with a 42 inch barrel.

My .70 caliber smoothbore flintlock pistol.

My .32 caliber flintlock rifle.

If you have any modern breach-loading guns, & you have extra people to carry them, then I recommend taking them but keep them for self-defence ONLY. If you use them for hunting as well as protection, you will soon run out of ammunition.

If or When TSHTF Part Four. Primitive living/survival skills.

This is a basic list of skills for woodsrunners in our group. These are long term wilderness living/survival skills.

Woodsrunner’s Skills.

This is a list of basic skills in which I personally would expect an 18^th century woodsman or woods-woman to have some experience with in our group.

·      Flint & steel fire lighting

·      Wet weather fire lighting

·      Fire-bow fire lighting

·      Flintlock fire lighting

·      Flintlock use, service & repair

·      Marksmanship with either gun or bow.

·      Field dressing & butchering game

·      Blade sharpening

·      Tomahawk throwing

·      Making rawhide

·      Brain tanning

·      Primitive shelter construction

·      How to stay warm in winter with only one blanket

·      Cordage manufacture

·      Moccasin construction and repair

·      Sewing

·      Axe and tomahawk helve making

·      Fishing

·      Hunting

·      Evasion

·      Tracking

·      Reading sign

·      Woods lore

·      Navigation

·      Primitive trap construction & trapping

·      Open fire cooking

·      Fireplace construction

·      Clothing manufacture

·      Drying meat & other foods

·      Knowledge of plant tinders & preparation

·      Knowledge of native foods & preparation

·      Knowledge of native plants in the area and their uses for other than tinder and food.

·      Scouting/Ranging.

·      Basic first aid.

·      Finding and treating water.

·      General leather work.

The Survival Connection By Keith H. Burgess.

The Survival Connection By Keith H. Burgess.

I will tell you a little about our group, who we are and what we do. Firstly we are an 18^th century living history group, called the New England Colonial Living History Group 1680-1760. I started this group some 30 odd years ago, and we have an online presence in our official forum. Living History is about interpreting and recreating  past lifestyles, a little like Historical Re-enactment, except that we do not generally put on displays for the public and we go into the skills & equipment far deeper than the re-enactors do, and we emulate common personas in everyday situations rather than just military as re-enactors tend to do.

Part of our activities is Experimental Archaeology. That is the using of equipment, clothing & foods to establish exactly how an item was used. Sometimes this involves actually making that item. This can be anything from making fire in a primitive or period manner, to building a ship & sailing it on a trade route. Now there is another side that has been added known as Experiential Archaeology, which is the continuing use of the skills that we learn in experiments. We only wear period correct clothing, and we only use period correct equipment.

Not so much in Australia’s colonial past, but more in the New World colonial past, life was all about survival for those colonists who chose to live in the wilderness. They had to find or make some of their own tools, they had to often travel on foot to their destination carrying these tools and other supplies. On the way and once there they had to deal with the threat posed by natives and criminals. Everyone who was strong enough to hold and aim a gun was expected to know how to shoot. Plus there were a host of other skills needed to construct a dwelling, grow and hunt for food and to complete certain chores.

Now it does not take a total genius to realise that the above situation is very much in line with our needs as modern survivalists. All the more so because modern equipment rarely teaches us anything other than this is a throw-away society that we live in. Where as primitive equipment teaches us much about flora, fauna and our environment. A typical example would be the difference between using the “real” flint and steel method of fire lighting that has been in use for hundreds of years, and using a ferocerium rod. Many people do not learn about plant tinders when using the ferocerium rod, or the difference between plant tinders and kindling. Making fire in the rain can be difficult with a ferocerium rod, but not with a flint and steel. The skills learnt by using the flint and steel extend to the making and use of the fire-bow, flintlock fire lighting and reading glass fire lighting.

With the 18^th century knapsack and contents I carry, along with other simple tools, I can survive a lifetime in the wilderness. Can a modern survivalist with what is considered mostly camping equipment claim the same? I very much doubt it. So what we have in 18^th century living history is tried equipment and primitive skills. But it gives us something else that is of the utmost importance in survival, and that is a reasonable level of comfort. I will gladly admit that most of what I carry on my person is for comfort and not necessarily required for my survival. I can survive without carrying any equipment with me into a wilderness, but it is a very hard life until one manages to make a collection of primitive tools to make life easier, and even then we are talking about a Palaeolithic lifestyle.

By carrying 18^th century equipment combined with the period and primitive skills, I can at least guarantee that my level of comfort will never drop below that level. Where as if I were to carry only modern clothing and equipment, slowly over time as items failed to work or broke and clothing wore out, I would be cast into a very primitive lifestyle regardless of the skills I may have learnt over time. If I were using a modern firearm it too may have ceased to function, or I may have simply run out of ammunition. Those using modern compound bows would be no better off, as these tools require special arrows, bow strings and parts.

However, do not think that I am totally against the use of modern technology; I believe that if we are able to carry some modern items as well as our period gear, then that would be an added advantage. The more people you have, the more you can take with you, but if I have to leave something behind, it will be the modern firearms etc that will in time break down and constitute a lot of weight for little gain. Modern medicine is an absolute must carry, despite what you may know about primitive methods and herbal use. Regardless of what you carry, you must keep one thing in mind. There must be a compromise between maximum self-reliance, and minimum weight.

If you have to leave the city or if you are forced from your bush retreat, you will need to make the right choice of equipment the first time. You may never get a chance to correct any mistakes, so choose wisely. IF you are serious about preparing for survival, and for you this is not just a game or a pastime, then you need to forget about looking like someone in the military. The military always has relied on back-up supplies and equipment. You, we, will NOT have that option. Whatever we take with us must be practicle, hard wearing and last us the rest of our lives.

Our group's forum. Anyone is welcome to join.  http://eighteenthcenturylivinghistory.freeforums.org/

My 18th Century Blog: http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com.au/

Survival. The 6th Sense.

Primitive Living

Post by Films For Action.

Saving Our World. Back to basics. Excellent Teaser Video.

Tracker - Trailer 1 from Pretty Damn Sweet on Vimeo.

Surviving Out Of Town. Green Valley Farm Part 1.

Traps and Trapping. Figure 4 Trigger and the Cage Trap Part 2.

Bug out areas to look for.

Bug out areas to look for.

Whether you scout out an area to survive in first or whether you have to find somewhere on the run, you need to know what to look for. Anywhere with cover will do for a temporary camp, but if you are looking for a permanent camp site, then there are specific things to look for.

Water is life, where you find water you will find food. A permanent water source attracts game, and with any luck you may find edible plants there as well. Ideally what you are looking for is water where cattail/Cumbungi is growing. This will give you a food supply as well as tinder and shelter material.

Trees are essential for constructing decent shelters, but a cave would make an even better dwelling. So keep these two areas in mind.

Cattail Pond on the author's property. This is the sort of area you should be looking for.

What Do You Need To Survive. Part 2 Wilderness Living.

What Do You Need To Survive. Wilderness Living.

If you do not have a retreat to go to, then when you leave the city you will have to go to the most remote part of the bush you can find. No matter if you are travelling by water or by car, you do not want to take with you any more gear than you can carry on your back. It is doubtful that you will be able to go all the way by vehicle, and if you have to ditch the vehicle at any time, then there is no point in leaving equipment behind.

What will you need to survive? You will need to survive the wilderness; it is not a home away from home. Living will not be easy. You do not need modern gadgets and “Rambo” survival knives. You need to carry practicle tools designed to perform the tasks of wilderness living. Yes you may need to use these tools for self defence, but their main purpose will be to serve you in the performance of living skills. You need a good butcher knife to skin and dress game. This knife is designed to perform this function, a “Rambo” knife is not. You will need more than one knife, and you will need a tomahawk, because no one tool can perform all duties easily and efficiently.

When you are packing your “bug-out” bag for the trail, there must be some compromise made between maximum self-reliance, and minimum weight. You may love your solar torch, but at the end of the day, would you rather have one more round left for your gun, or would you rather have that torch?

No matter how much you like the thought of being able to carry your modern breach-loading firearm, the reality is that it is going to cost you a lot of weight in ammunition, regardless of whether or not you intend to reload your own ammo, there are other important items you need to carry with you. A self-bow or a muzzle-loading gun is a far better choice for long term wilderness survival. If you have enough people going with you, then by all means have someone carry a modern firearm. But they can not afford to be laden down carrying a lot of ammo. You are just as dead if you are hit by a .22 as you are if you are hit with a .308, so if you are carrying a firearm for self defence, then go for a .22 with light ammo, or a 12 gauge and carry less ammo.

The muzzle-loading gun has many advantages over the breach-loader for hunting, the main one being that you can easily retrieve the spent lead from shot game and remould it. This means that you can afford to carry more weight in gunpowder than in lead, and your ammo will last longer.

Tents and hammocks are restrictive when you are survival camping. They restrict your movement, and it means that you have to carry extra bedding or a sleeping bag to stay warm on cold nights as you can not gain any warmth from a fire. If your camp is raided in the night, you will be at a disadvantage. So I recommend that you choose a simple canvas or oil cloth lean-to shelter. You can see more and hear more, you can gain heat from a reflector fire if it is safe to make a fire. You do not need poles or rods to hold this shelter up. In actual fact you are better off in dry weather sleeping without any shelter or fire at all.

Cooking utensils are many, but all you need is a kettle/billy. Do not add more weight or bulk by carrying anything else, it is just not needed. Don’t carry a camp stove and fuel, it is not needed. Instead make sure you are carrying trail foods that do not require cooking.

Fire lighting tools need to be as basic as you can make them. Fire lighting must be sustainable, this means learning some fire lighting skills beyond the use of matches, lighter or ferrocerium rod. The ferrocerium rod relies on everything being right, and if this rod is dropped and breaks, you are stuffed. Learn to use a flint, steel & tinderbox, and learn how to make and use the fire-bow. You can’t keep up a steady supply of Vaseline cotton balls or “charcloth” in the wilderness, so learn how it is really done and you will never be without fire.

The author's blades.

Tomahawk. Making trap and shelter stakes, hammering in stakes, pounding plant materials, shelter construction, throwing for recreation, throwing for hunting, butchering game, self-defence, trap making, making pegs, hammering in pegs, dispatching game, debarking timber.

Hunting Knife. Skinning and butchering game, hunting, self-defence, eating.
Clasp Knife. Camp chores, making trap triggers, cutting cordage, harvesting plants, making fire-bow parts, back-up for other tasks.
Legging Knife. Self-defence, back-up for skinning and dressing game.

Benefits of the flintlock over the modern firearm. Copyright Keith H. Burgess.

1. Spent lead can be retrieved from shot game & easily remoulded into swan shot or round ball by using a simple ball mould & a light lead ladle. This means you can carry less weight in lead, & more weight in gunpowder, which means your ammo will last longer.
2. You are not carrying the extra weight of brass shells & do not have to worry about moisture damage to primers. You are not carrying heavy reloading gear.
3. Flintlocks are easy to repair, especially if you are carrying a few spare springs. Flintlocks rarely break, but if the lock did break, & you had no spare parts, you can easily turn it into a matchlock or a tinderlock & continue using it.
4. A flintlock smoothbore can digest round ball, swan shot, or light bird shot, or any combination of two of these in one load. IF you were eventually to run out of lead, there are other projectiles that can be used.
5. The lock on a flintlock can be used to make fire without the use of gunpowder.
6. A .32 caliber flintlock rifle will take any game a .22 will. It will also take larger game. It uses only about 14 grains of black powder so ammo is light & it lasts a very long time. With another mould, you can also use minnies (conical) which are heavier & have even more killing power. They are very accurate.
7. Paper cartridges are easy to make for the smoothbore, & makes for much faster reloading.
8. The fact that you are carrying black powder, means that you can use it to make fire even if you have no prepared tinder.
9. You can carry a flintlock pistol in a matching caliber  For instance, a 20 gauge fusil & pistol. The pistol can digest exactly the same ammunition, swan shot (buckshot) & ball is devastating.
10. Ignition is supplied be a piece of hard sharp rock. You can of course carry spare flints, but should you run out, you can find suitable rocks in the bush.
11. You can if you are careful, make your own gunpowder. I have read that you can make suitable gunpowder by using just charcoal & Potassium Nitrate, but I have not tried this yet. Both of these elements can be made in the bush.
12. Anything hit with a large caliber ball from a flintlock will not get away, regardless of where it is hit.

http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/the-flintlock-gun-in-18th-century-and.html

http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=Primitive+Fire+Lighting&categoryId=100501